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Spotlights

LDF Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill and Special Counsel Debo Adegbile were interviewed on MSNBC at the foot of the Edmund Pettus bridge, the site where marchers were beaten by Alabama police in 1965 while protesting for voting rights.

On March 7, 2013, Rev. William A. "Bill" Lawson, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph A. Fiorenza, and Rabbi Emeritus Samuel Karff eloquently explained how and why their commitments to faith and justice motivated them to speak out and publicly ask the Harris County District Attorney to ensure that Duane Buck -- who was sentenced to death in 1997 after a prosecutor elicited testimony indicating that he posed a future danger because he was Black — receives a new, fair sentencing hearing.

On March 8, LDF Special Counsel, Debo Adegbile, talked with The Cycle hosts on MSNBC about Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, the current challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. According to Mr. Adegbile, Section 5, the heart of the Voting Rights Act, helps ensure a more inclusive democracy. With Mr. Adegbile defending the constitutionality of Section 5 on behalf of six African-American voters, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case on February 27.

Ryan Haygood, Director of LDF's Political Participation Group, discusses, on the Rachael Maddow Show, why it is imperative that the U. S. Supreme Court uphold the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

A recent editorial spotlights how being too poor to hire a lawyer in a criminal felony case should not be a barrier to counsel; one must be provided freely by the jurisdiction as the Supreme Court ruled 50 years ago inGideon v. Wainwright. However, jurisdistions have found ways to shirk this responsibility to the detriment of those who have no other recourse.